The Promise of Failure: One Writer's Perspective on Not Succeeding

McNally, John

ISBN 10: 1609385756 / ISBN 13: 9781609385750

Published by University of Iowa Press, 2018

Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1609385756I3N10

Synopsis:

The Promise of Failure is part memoir of the writing life, part advice book, and part craft book; sometimes funny, sometimes wrenching, but always honest. McNally uses his own life as a blueprint for the writer’s daily struggles as well as the existential ones, tackling subjects such as when to quit and when to keep going, how to deal with depression, what risking something of yourself means, and ways to reenergize your writing through reinvention.

What McNally illuminates is how rejection, in its best light, is another element of craft, a necessary stage to move the writer from one project to the next, and that it’s best to see rejection and failure on a life-long continuum so that you can see the interconnectedness between failure and success, rather than focusing on failure as a measure of self-worth. As brutally candid as McNally can sometimes be, The Promise of Failure is ultimately an inspiring book―never in a Pollyannaish self-help way. McNally approaches the reader as a sympathetic companion with cautionary tales to tell. Written by an author who has as many unpublished books under his belt as published ones, The Promise of Failure is as much for the newcomer as it is for the established writer.

About the Author: John McNally is the author or editor of seventeen books, including The Boy Who Really, Really Wanted to Have Sex: The Memoir of a Fat Kid and Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Writing Fiction (Iowa). McNally divides his time between Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Lafayette, Louisiana. He teaches at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Promise of Failure: One Writer's ...
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Publication Date: 2018
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket